This invention relates to the combination or set of packing rings disposed in a packing cup around a gas compressor piston rod to limit the escape of a compressed gas from a compressor cylinder along its reciprocally movable piston rod during operation of the compressor.
This invention relates to the combination or set of packing rings disposed in a packing cup around a gas compressor piston rod to limit the escape of a compressed gas from a compressor along its reciprocally movable piston rod during operation of the compressor. The term "packing ring" as used herein means a ring which is or can be compressed on and around a gas compressor piston rod to form a seal to limit the escape of gas along the piston rod past the seal during at least a portion of a cycle of the piston rod from commencement of a compression stroke to completion an immediately succeeding return stroke.
Each of the individual rings making up the ring combination of this invention are old and well known in the prior art and have long been used alone or in combination with other types of rings in gas compressors. Nevertheless, the particular combination of ring types to which this invention is directed is believed to be novel and will provide enhanced service life as compared to prior art compressor piston rod packing ring combinations. To enhance the service life of a set of rings used in a packing cup around a piston rod, it would be desirable that different ones or pairs of rings in the combination encounter most of the gas compression loading to compress the rings upon the piston rod, during different portions of the compression and return strokes of the reciprocating compressor rod. No prior art combination of packing rings is believed capable of achieving such a result.
By means of my invention, these and other shortcomings of prior art compressor piston rod packing ring combinations are substantially overcome.